


Worst Brother Ever

by GachMoBrea



Series: Fostering Strength - Side Stories [2]
Category: The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: AU, Brotherly Feels!, Canon Divergence (Of Course), Flashpoint AU, Foster Family, Gen, Guilty!Barry, I am NOT going to let this happen in the "real" Series, Len & Mick are Criminal Partners, MetaHuman!Snart, Metahuman!Len, Not Nice!, sad!, time line changes
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-25
Updated: 2017-03-25
Packaged: 2018-10-10 08:23:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,694
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10433517
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GachMoBrea/pseuds/GachMoBrea
Summary: I hope you do a thing where when Barry changes the timeline, Len was never adopted and Barry is stopping his and Mick's robberies like," You are the worst brother ever!" And Len and Mick are like, "...what?!?!"[TheValdezTARDIS]This is a Flashpoint alternative for the Foster Family Universe.Before Barry has a chance to talk to Iris, before he realized Cisco is super rich, or any of that other nonsense...He runs into Captain Cold and Mick, infamous criminals of Central City.





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [TheValdezTARDIS](https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheValdezTARDIS/gifts).



> Hello there, TheValdezTARDIS!! So...I was thinking about that comment you wrote way back when and went: "Hey! I should totally write that out! It's been far, far, FAR too long."  
> I hope you enjoy.  
> \--- - ---- - ---- - --- - --- - --- - --- - --- - --- - --- - --- - --- - --- - --- - --- - --- - --- - --- - --- - ---

Barry was so happy. Actually, "happy" didn't even BEGIN to cover how he felt.  
BOTH of his parents were alive. They were stupid, crazy, wonderful in love and he had so much time left to spend with them.  
Every time he thinks about it, he kicks himself for not going back and saving his mother sooner. He was an idiot for letting the opportunity to pass him up the first time.  
Life was bliss.

It's a perfect sunny day in Central and Barry opts to walk like a normal person to work, for part of the way at least.  
He's passing a darkened jewelry store when two people quickly walk out of it. One of them brushes passed him hard enough to spin him to the side.  
"Hey!" he calls after them, wondering what their problem was.  
The one who brushed him ignores him to go straight for a car parked at the curb. The second man mumbles a, "Sorry, kid." that has Barry frowning at the familiarity of it.  
He watches the two drive off as he tries to place the voice....then he hears it.  
Muffled shouting.  
Barry goes into the jewelry store, following the noise to the source. There's a man, bound and gagged, in the back room. As Barry unties the man as quickly as he can without his powers, he notices all the open, and empty drawers.  
He knows he had literally run into the robbers before the freed man tells him to call 9-1-1 to report the robbery.

Barry can't process the scene because he was 'technically' part of the robbery, a partial witness really. But he secretly goes over the evidence, especially the security cameras.  
There's nothing to find. Whoever robbed the place was thorough. They even caught the owner by surprise, he never got a look at them.  
All the police have to go on is one of the robber's voices.  
"His voice was like ice," the owner remembers, trembling slightly. "I never want to hear that voice again."

\- - -

Two days later, there's another robbery at another jewelry store.  
Barry isn't anywhere near it at the time but he makes it a point to run to the place as fast as he can, though he stays in the shadows. He sees Kid Flash for the first time there and feels relief that there's another speedster to take over the hero duties so he can spend more time with his parents.  
The thieves get away again somehow, and Barry's frustration grows with added anger.  
Why was it bothering him so much? Was it because he couldn't place the voice? It was SO familiar, but there were only two words to go on and he just couldn't figure it out.

\- - -

After another robbery, Barry notices a pattern. It's small, almost pathetic really. There's always a water delivery from a specific company right before the robberies. Innocuous and perfect for criminals.  
He stakes out the next place that gets the delivery dressed as The Flash.  
It's a bank this time and the theft happens at night.  
Midnight comes and goes.  
Then, just before it's one o'clock in the morning, Barry sees movement.  
A car dives through a back alley, its lights off. Two shadowing figures get out and go through a back way.  
'Got 'cha!' Barry thinks triumphantly as he speeds inside the bank to surprise the thieves.  
They must be disabling security, because it takes several minutes for them to get to the speedster.  
When they do, it's BARRY who's more surprised than them.  
"LEN?" Barry sputters as he sees his foster brother and the familiarity of the voice finally clicks. The man has a thick head of blonde hair, but otherwise looks exactly the same. Barry's building anger takes over as he shouts, "You are the worst brother ever!"  
Len frowns at the hero. Mick, the second man of the pair, turns to him.  
"What is this punk talking about?" Mick asks his partner.  
"I have no idea," Len drawls, lifting a gun from a leg holster.  
"I can't believe you'd do this!" Barry continues, anger only increasing with the man's look of confusion. "What happened to turning your life around? What about Lisa?"  
Len lifts the gun and shoots at the speedster.  
Barry dodges the bullets then rams into his foster brother, taking the weapon away as he falls onto his back.  
"Now you're shooting me!" he seethes, taking the weapon apart to drop the pieces to the ground.  
There's a click of a second weapon and Barry curses himself for forgetting Mick was there too.  
"What do you know," Mick growls. "Another lightning boy. This one comes in red."  
"Shoot him," Len orders as he pushes himself to his feet.  
Barry speeds out of the bullets path and gives Mick's gun the same treatment he gave Len's.  
"That's an annoying trick, kid," Mick growls, pulling a large knife next.  
"Len," Barry turns to his foster brother again. "What are you doing?"  
"I don't know who you are or how you know my name," Len says icily. He straightens his hooded vest with a sharp tug before finishing. "But I'm going to be the last face you see on this planet."  
"Why?" the speedster asks. "Why are you like this? Does Joe know?"  
"Joe?" Mick grunts. "Now he's just throwing names out of nowhere."  
"Joe West," Barry presses. "Your foster father!"  
"I never had a foster father, whoever you are," Len returns, voice as cold as his eyes. "My father raised me, until he killed my sister, and I killed him."  
Barry feels as though he's been stabbed by the knife still held tightly in Mick's hands.  
'What? How was this possible? Lisa is...Lisa is dead? And Len is a criminal?!'  
"Why are you telling this punk anything?" Mick asks, taking a step closer to the speedster. "We should just kill him and run."  
"You're right," Len nods. "Just like in Tooson?"  
"That was fun!" Mick brightens. "But I think this needs your special touch, partner."  
"Very well," Len sighs, removing his gloves.  
White, frigid air billows out and Barry's eyes widen as ice creeps up Len's bare forearms.  
"You're a Meta," he realizes aloud.  
"Yeah," Mick chuckles. "You messed with the wrong guy, kid."  
Len throws his hands up, sending a wave of ice at the hero.  
Barry runs away from the wave but its simultaneously spreading out across the floor and he trips against a patch of it and slides into a wall. He scrambles to get back up, but is pinned in place by spikes of ice that grow up from the ground and towards every part of his body.  
"Lenny, please!" he begs, closing his eyes.  
The icicle at his chest stops pressing against him and he opens one eye again.  
Mick is frowning at Len as the blonde looks at the speedster curiously.  
"Why did you stop?" Mick growls. "Just kill him already so we can ransack this place and go!"  
Ignoring his partner, Len walks closer to the hero. The ice morphs and changes to encase Barry in a frozen trap that covers everything but his head.  
Barry shivers against the immense cold but he keeps eye contact as the man who was his foster brother steps up and stops right in front of him.  
"Who are you?" Len demands to know with a glare, his eyes shining with power but his voice still the same Len that Barry knew.  
"I'm Barry," he explains. "Your brother."  
"I don't have a brother," Len corrects, putting a hand on the ice to press it further against the speedster, making it harder for the hero to breathe.  
"We were! We should have been!" Barry tries as air becomes difficult to pull in. "I changed the Time Line! I messed everything up! I'm sorry!"  
The ice pushes away enough for Barry to breathe, and he greedily does.  
"He's insane!" Mick growls. "Just kill him!"  
"Shut up!" Len snaps, throwing up a wall to separate himself and the speedster from the other criminal. Eyes narrowing he asks, "What do you mean you changed the Time Line? Runners can do that?"  
"Speedsters," Barry corrects with a grimace. Every part of him that hadn't gone numb felt as though it were being stabbed by millions of needles at once. "And yes. I ran back in time to save my mother. It changed more than I realized it would."  
"So...You can go back," Len realizes, then amends, "You can take me back. Back to when my father killed my sister. You can help me save her."  
"Yes," Barry agrees, though he has a slightly different plan in mind.  
The ice falls away and Len grabs ahold of Barry as the speedster starts to fall to his knees.  
"Take me back," he orders.  
"I can't feel my legs yet," Barry grimaces.  
Len lifts an arm, palm facing up. All of the remaining ice, as well as the very feeling of cold in the air, dissipates in a matter of moments.  
He glares at the speedster. "Better?"  
"It will be," Barry confesses.

Barry runs.  
He runs back to where he imprisoned Eobard.  
He runs back to the night that terrorizes his dreams, turning them into his darkest nightmares.  
He watches his mother be murdered, again.  
He feels his heart shatter to pieces as he cries for all of his mistakes.

Because HE wanted to be happy, he ruined Len's life, was responsible for Lisa losing hers. There was no way he could live his life with that.  
His siblings deserved better than that.  
He had been selfish.  
Not a hero in the slightest.

Barry runs again.  
He runs back to the present he had left before.  
He runs to Len's apartment and slams his fist against the wood desperately.  
Len opens the door, gun out and face alarmed as he takes in his foster brother's appearance. "Barry? Are you okay?"  
Barry takes his brother into his arms and holds him tight as fresh, hot tears spill down his cheeks.  
Strong, familiar arms wrap around Barry and Len just holds on as his brother falls apart in his arms.

 

\--- - --- - ---

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: I own....wait for it....NOTHING!  
> (Honestly, I got nothing. I get nothing. This is just a fan sporadically writing about lovely characters.)


End file.
